Poultry harvester

ABSTRACT

A poultry harvester has a pick-up head feeding birds from the front end of the harvester onto a conveyor belt. The pick-up head includes a three-rotor array with the poultry-handling elements on each rotor abutting and/or intermeshing with the elements of the other two rotors of the array. Stationary side walls flank both sides of the conveyor belt and barrier loops extend away from these sides wall to interdigitate with the guide elements of the rotors and embrace the cores of these rotors. This prevents birds from being pulled between the side walls and the adjacent rotors. A similar arrangement may also be used at the rear end of the harvester.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to poultry harvesters.

GB Patent 2205917 (National Research Development Corporation) disclosespoultry harvesters in which a conveyor belt transfers birds from apoultry-handling assembly at the front of the harvester to an endlocation at the back of the harvester.

In harvesters of this type, the poultry-handling assembly comprises twoinwardly and outwardly counter-rotating poultry pick-up rotors arrangedside-by-side with a continuous array of flexible bird-engaging guideelements on each rotor, abutting and/or intermeshing with the guideelements on the other rotor. The pick-up rotors at the front of theharvester function to pick up birds from the floor and transfer theminto the harvester.

Stationary walls flank the sides of the conveyor tn order to prevent theescape of the birds travelling along the conveyor, and it is known tohave barrier combs extending from the side walls of the conveyor tointerdigitate with the guide elements of the pick-up rotors. These combsensure that the birds are removed from the poultry-handling assemblyonto the conveyor. If these combs were not fitted, there would be apossibility of the birds continuing round the pick-up rotors and beingejected from the sides of the pick-up rotors.

The combs used to date consist of columns of straight rigid teeth whichpoint forwardly into the associated pick-up rotors and are positionedaccurately between the rows of flexible guide elements projecting fromthe cores of the rotors. The distal ends of the teeth end as close aspossible to the cores of the rotors. It is a drawback of this design,however, that if the comb teeth become out of position so that they willno longer function correctly, the birds can become trapped between thepick-up rotors and the side walls, resulting tn the blockage of themachine and the likelihood of injury to the birds. Similar problems canoccur when pick-up rotors are used at the rear of the harvester todischarge birds from the conveyor.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a poultry harvester comprising twocounter-rotating poultry pick-up rotors, arranged side-by-side with acontinuous array of flexible bird-engaging guide elements supported bycore portions on each rotor, abutting and/or intermeshing with similarguide elements on the other rotor, a conveyor for transferring the birdsto or from the pick-up rotors, stationary side walls flanking both sidesof the conveyor, and barrier means extending away from the side walls tointerdigitate with the rotor guide elements and at least in part embracethe cores of the rotors so as to prevent birds from being pulled betweenthe side walls and said cores.

The barrier means completely encircle the rotor cores. The number ofbarrier means embracing the rotors will depend upon the size of thebirds being harvested. Preferably, when the harvester is intended forharvesting broilers, the guide elements are arranged tn rows and thereis at least one such barrier means extending at least between everythird, preferably every alternate, and more preferably every row ofguide elements.

The barrier means are provided by loops of metal, plastics and/or anyother suitable material, e.g. rubber loops extending from the side wallsaround the adjacent rotor cores. The pick-up rotors may be located atthe front and/or back ends of the harvester.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the invention will now be shown, by way of example only,with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGS. 1 and 2 are plan and side views of a broiler harvester accordingto the present invention;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are more detailed side and perspective views of apreferred form of the harvester front end; and

FIG. 5 is a detailed view of a preferred form of rotor used in theharvester pick-up head and discharge assemblies of FIGS. 1 to 4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENTLY PREFERRED EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT

Referring first to FIGS. 1 and 2, a mobile bird-harvester 10, inaccordance with the present invention, comprises three rotors 12,13,14mounted in a triangular formation to provide a pick-up head 16 at thefront end of the harvester. Each of the rotors 12,13,14 provides anarray of flexible rubber fingers of the sort currently used for pluckingchicken carcasses.

One such rotor is shown in detail in FIG. 5 of the drawings from whichit will be seen that each finger comprises a smooth root portion(adjacent a supporting drum member) and a corrugated end portion.Typically the fingers will taper from an initial diameter of about 25 mmto a final diameter of about 12 mm at the tip. The overall finger lengthis typically about 235 mm giving rise to an overlap of about 50 mm atthe position of maximum intermesh between the two rotors. The resilientnature of the finger material allows the fingers to be pushed intoappropriate apertures in the two drum members, a peripheral groove inthe root portion of each finger ensuring that the finger locks securelyinto place in the drum aperture.

Further details of these rotors may be had from U.S. Pat. No. 2,128,870(National Research Development Corporation).

Behind the pick-up head 16, is an angled upwardly moving conveyor belt18. The support frame for belt 18 is provided by a scanning arm 20, theupper end of which is pivotally mounted on the harvester chassis 22 toallow the arm to scan over an arc 23, and the lower end of which isoptionally carried on pivoting ground-support wheels.

At its upper end, the conveyor belt 18 discharges onto a second conveyorbelt 24 at the rear end of which is a 3-rotor discharge assembly 26.This latter is of the same, or essentially the same, configuration androtor design as pick-up head 16 except that the end rotor (114) nowtrails the other two rotors (112,113) and all three rotors rotate aboutvertical axes. This last requirement distinguishes the dischargeassembly from the pick-up head 16 where only the end rotor 14 rotatesabout a vertical axis and the other two rotors 12,13 rotate aboutupwardly and forwardly inclined axes lying perpendicular to the supportsurface of inclined belt 18.

Further details of the rotor assemblies and the working of the broilerharvester incorporating such rotors can be found in U.S. Pat. No.2,205,917 (National Research Development Corporation).

FIGS. 3 and 4 of the drawings, show details of a preferred design forthe front end of the illustrated harvester constructed in accordancewith the teachings of the present invention but omitted from the otherFigures for reasons of clarity.

Thus referring now to FIGS. 3 and 4, it will be seen that the bottomends of the side walls 350 to the conveyor belt 18 are fitted withplastics or metal extensions 351 which provide a "comb" structureencircling the core regions of the rotors 12,13 and interdigitating withthe guide elements 28 on these rotors. The purpose of these extensionsis to provide a barrier which removes any possibility of the birds beingpulled between the ends of the side walls and the adjacent rotors,rather than being successfully transferred from the pick-up head on tothe conveyor belt. In an alternative design (not shown), the extensionsextend adjacent the conveyor belt 18 only part of the way around the tworotor cores.

Further comb structures may be fitted for each of the rotors 112,113 atthe rear end of the harvester to prevent birds from being pulled intothe spaces between these rotors and stationary side walls (not shown)for the rear elevator belt 24. These further comb structures can bevirtually identical to the preferred or alternative designs described inthe preceding paragraph although they will, of course, be differentlyorientated to take account of the difference in attitude between rotors12,13 on the one hand, and rotors 112,113 on the other hand.

What is claimed is:
 1. A poultry harvester comprising: twocounter-rotating poultry pick-up rotors arranged side-by-side with acontinuous array of flexible bird-engaging guide elements supported bycore portions on each rotor abutting and/or intermeshing with similarguide elements on the other rotor; a conveyor for transferring the birdsto or from the pick-up rotors; stationary side walls flanking both sidesof the conveyor and barrier means extending away from the side walls tointerdigitate with the rotor guide elements and at least in part embracethe core portions of the rotors so as to prevent birds from being pulledbetween the side walls and said core portions.
 2. A poultry harvesteraccording to claim 1, wherein the barrier means completely encircle therotor core portions.
 3. A poultry harvester according to claim 1 or 2,wherein the barrier means are provided by metal and/or plastics loopsextending from the side walls around the adjacent rotor core portions.4. A poultry harvester according to claim 1, wherein the barrier meansextend at least between every third row of guide elements.
 5. A poultryharvester according to claim 1, wherein the barrier means extend atleast between every alternate row of guide elements.
 6. A poultryharvester according to claim 1, wherein the barrier means extend betweenevery row of guide elements.
 7. A poultry harvester according to claim1, wherein the pick-up rotors are located at the front and back end ofthe harvester.
 8. A poultry harvester according to claim 1, wherein thepick-up rotors are located at the front end of the harvester.
 9. Apoultry harvester according to claim 1, wherein the pick-up rotors arelocated at the back end of the harvester.